Burglars raid Texas Apple Store & steal almost 500 iPhones, AirPods, Apple Watches

AppleInsider

Four masked people broke into Apple The Woodlands store in Texas on Monday, August 29, making off with with hundreds of thousands of dollars of brand new merchandise.

Unlike the recent Apple Covent Garden robbery in London, the Texas raid took place before opening hours.

According to local news channel ABC 13, the Montgomery County Sheriff's office dispatched deputies to the store inside The Woodlands Mall at around 8 a.m. local time.

The deputies report that four suspects forced their way into the store. "A large quantity of merchandise was stolen from the store," said the Sheriff's office in a press release, "including over 200 Apple Watches, over 50 AirPods, and over 220 phones."

MCTXSheriff Investigates Apple Store Burglary at The Woodlands Mall https://t.co/4zuzIFW7mv pic.twitter.com/0aV9EhapNt

-- MCTXSheriff (@MCTXSheriff)

August 29, 2022

"The suspects were seen leaving the scene in [a] grey four-door passenger car," it continued.

The Montgomery County Sheriff's Office is asking for anyone with information to call them on 936-760-5800, or Crime Stoppers at 1800-392-STOP.

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goodbyeranch

Article fails to mention this is north of Houston

Pancake

goodbyeranch said:

Article fails to mention this is north of Houston

Right‽ They also didn’t mention that Texas is in the US of A! Shoddy journalism I tell you. Shoddy. 

RDWTX

And the author failed to disclose that Apple is a California based company with stores in Texas - sigh!   

john-useless

Every time an Apple Store theft makes the news, one thought occurs: Can't Apple simply remotely disable any stolen product that is capable of broadcasting its own identity via Bluetooth, WiFi, and/or the FindMy network? One would think that Apple could quickly identify the serial number of every item that leaves a store.

Apple couldn't prevent a stolen Mac, Watch, iPhone, AirPod, AirTag, monitor, or Apple TV from being powered on … but for new, unregistered products, I would have thought that Apple could potentially do something to prevent them from being registered as new, legally-purchased items — and possibly even alert authorities as to the locations of stolen goods.

MacPro

john-useless said:

Every time an Apple Store theft makes the news, one thought occurs: Can't Apple simply remotely disable any stolen product that is capable of broadcasting its own identity via Bluetooth, WiFi, and/or the FindMy network? One would think that Apple could quickly identify the serial number of every item that leaves a store.

Apple couldn't prevent a stolen Mac, Watch, iPhone, AirPod, AirTag, monitor, or Apple TV from being powered on … but for new, unregistered products, I would have thought that Apple could potentially do something to prevent them from being registered as new, legally-purchased items — and possibly even alert authorities as to the locations of stolen goods.

I always wonder the same thing.  I am usually told the spare parts are worth the theft even if they were bricked.  It's a shame Apple could trigger them to all scream "help!" endlessly while calling 911 and sending locations,  and the moment they are powered off again go into a coma only Apple can awaken them from whilst still sending out location pings. Spraying that bank note theft dye would be a nice addition.

danox

Woodlands a well off distant suburb to Houston 30-33 miles to the north, house prices are unaffordable to more than half of all Native Texans. However very affordable cash wise if you are a Yankee moving into Texas however.

SwordsCrossed

danox said:

Woodlands a well off distant suburb to Houston 30-33 miles to the north, house prices are unaffordable to more than half of all Native Texans. However very affordable cash wise if you are a Yankee moving into Texas however.

Which begs the question, why would any Yankee voluntarily move to Texas in the first place? After all, Texas is rife with right-wing fundamentalist Christian gun nuts who are more than happy to suppress the rights of minorities, women (and frankly all Texans) with draconian laws governing private behaviors and fundamental voting rights while at the same time allowing their electrical infrastructure to deteriorate to such a degree that a simple weather event propels 3/4 of the state into the mid 19th century.  Move to Texas?  No how no way.

danox

SwordsCrossed said:

danox said:

Woodlands a well off distant suburb to Houston 30-33 miles to the north, house prices are unaffordable to more than half of all Native Texans. However very affordable cash wise if you are a Yankee moving into Texas however.

Which begs the question, why would any Yankee voluntarily move to Texas in the first place? After all, Texas is rife with right-wing fundamentalist Christian gun nuts who are more than happy to suppress the rights of minorities, women (and frankly all Texans) with draconian laws governing private behaviors and fundamental voting rights while at the same time allowing their electrical infrastructure to deteriorate to such a degree that a simple weather event propels 3/4 of the state into the mid 19th century.  Move to Texas?  No how no way.

True but the prices are temping, but Prop 13 is hard to overcome beyond 800,000 thousand dollars, potentially paying one to two thousand dollars a month on property taxes on a house that is payed for per month reminds you that serfdom is real.

That Apple gear probably is disabled by Apple, but most of it may be south of the border. 50/50 chance. 

tommikele

danox said:

Woodlands a well off distant suburb to Houston 30-33 miles to the north, house prices are unaffordable to more than half of all Native Texans. However very affordable cash wise if you are a Yankee moving into Texas however.

Most Yankees are way too smart to move to Texas.

Woodlands is mostly populated by long-time Texan, not northerners.

BTW, no matter what state is under discussion, well-off, affluent suburbs are out or the reach of way more than half of the people in any state. If anything, in Texas, the number it is out of reach for is much higher. Someone can't be regarded as being too smart if they are voluntarily living in Texas.

Xed

danox said:

Woodlands a well off distant suburb to Houston 30-33 miles to the north, house prices are unaffordable to more than half of all Native Texans. However very affordable cash wise if you are a Yankee moving into Texas however.

You also have to contend with higher overall taxes in TX than in CA. TX doesn't have a state income tax, but they get you on other taxes, not to mention worse education, higher infant mortality rates, and other aspects that make it less than ideal place to move unless you only focus on one or two specific aspects.

mpantone

Xed said:

danox said:

Woodlands a well off distant suburb to Houston 30-33 miles to the north, house prices are unaffordable to more than half of all Native Texans. However very affordable cash wise if you are a Yankee moving into Texas however.

You also have to contend with higher overall taxes in TX than in CA. TX doesn't have a state income tax, but they get you on other taxes, not to mention worse education, higher infant mortality rates, and other aspects that make it less than ideal place to move unless you only focus on one or two specific aspects.

Uh not exactly. If you read any of those recent articles about the TX-CA tax discrepancy, high-income households pay considerably less taxes than Californians at equivalent income percentiles.

So the people who live in upper income Texas neighborhoods like The Woodlands are paying less taxes than people living in equivalent California neighborhoods. And all those other negatives (education, infant mortality, etc.) are typically income related and would be less prevalent in a community like The Woodlands.

My guess is that the thieves aren't residents of The Woodlands.

Apple generally does not operate retail Apple Stores in low income neighborhoods, especially their suburban stores.